In an effort to cease criminal operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers launched Operation Stolen Promise. Authorities and local law enforcement are to intercept shipment and delivery of items, and so far, they have confiscated fake test kits and diluted bleach.

Closer at the border, officers are on high alert in El Paso and Nogales to ensure that these products do not cross American territory.

Frauds taking advantage of supply shortage

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations Phoenix special agent-in-charge Scott Brown, predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic provided the ideal conditions for criminals to scam civilians.

He said that they found fake COVID-19 test kits being shipped into Sky Harbor International Airport. In the middle of a health and economic crisis, supply shortage is low, and people are in need of medical supplies and equipment.

At the border, officials confiscated almost a thousand bottles of diluted household products like bleach. Frauds would be selling fake and diluted products for illicit profit. Scott said that the officers were adapting to threats previously unheard of, like PPE-related fraud.

He commended the agents and officers for identifying the cleaning products as a potential threat. Brown added that they were committed to maintaining their efforts to deal with the criminals, who he believed would be just as willing to continue scamming people for as long as the pandemic would go on.

Some of these products were counterfeit personal protective equipment and pharmaceuticals found by Baltimore officers. Similarly, in El Paso, authorities recovered medical equipment like thermometers, bleach, and cold medicine.

Beverly Good, U.S. Customs and Border Protection El Paso Port Director, believed that the cold medicines especially might contain something that was not approved by the Food and Drugs Administration. This would pose harm to unknowing civilians.

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Operation Stolen Promise

In response to the pandemic-related deception schemes, ICE's Homeland Security Investigations started Operation Stolen Promise, or S.T.O.P. COVID-19 Fraud campaign. This was an effort to intercept shipment of fake supplies being delivered in the country. 

A key part of the operation was public outreach, in which officers involve the public by providing tips and red flags that would allow them to identify criminals and report them. The official web page of the campaign was launched to provide information about the scams and the local law enforcement.

Special agent Jere Miles at HSI's New Orleans field office said that the frauds started with supplies like PPE. When more products and equipment were shelved out from stores as a result of panic-buying, the criminals must have seen the opportunity to gain profit.

He recommended everybody to start reaching out to local authorities in the community to report any suspicious characters.

Miles offered more advice, saying that Americans must become equally involved in the operation to purge the scammers. He said that if the product's price seemed too good to be true, then it was highly possible it could be a fraud.